The New York Earth Room

141 Wooster Street | also 143 Wooster Street, 145 Wooster Street | SoHo | built 1897

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1977
Walter De Maria fills a Wooster Street loft with 250 cubic yards of earth
Commissioned by Dia in 1977, Walter De Maria's The New York Earth Room covers more than 3,600 square feet of a loft at 141 Wooster Street with 250 cubic yards of earth, 22 inches deep. It was the artist's third Earth Room, after versions in Munich and Darmstadt that no longer exist, and Dia made it a permanent public site in 1980.
Source: diaart.org
1989
Painter Bill Dilworth becomes caretaker of the Earth Room
The painter Bill Dilworth became caretaker of The New York Earth Room in 1989 and looked after it until he retired in 2024. The Dia Art Foundation, founded by Heiner Friedrich, has sponsored the work since 1980, counts it among the sites it manages, and keeps an apartment on the same floor.
Source: Wikipedia

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